This new review is of a film that I've been anxious to see since I first heard word of it, it's a Mel Gibson action comedy set in a Mexican prison and it's a great return to sarcastic form for the troubled Oscar winning film maker. Check out my review after the jump...
Right
let me just start by saying that I love Mel Gibson, I know the guy
has some serious anger issues and has had a rough time over the last
few years but he's Mel Gibson, Mad Max, Martin Riggs, Porter and
William Wallace, the man is an immense legend and a bloody good film
maker. I do not agree with some of the things he's said or done in
that last couple of years but I admire the man as a fan of his films
and as a film maker who takes risks with his projects. There i've
said it, it's how I feel about the guy, I grew up on a diet of the
Road Warrior and Lethal Weapon and my all time favourite Gibson movie
is Payback. On the subject of Payback, I bring you my review for
Mel's latest movie, the wonderfully titled Get The Gringo or if you
live in the U.K, How I Spent My Summer Vacation ( I refuse to call
it that because there is a Tiny Toons movie with the same Title and
it just gets confusing).
I
bet you're wondering where I was going with that 'on the subject of
Payback' bit right?, well Get The Gringo, is in some way an
unofficial sequel to that film, i'm not saying it's a total sequel
but it shares a lot of similarities and there's been a lot of online
debate over whether this is or is not a sequel, I like to think of it
as the next chapter in Porter's life (unofficially).
The
film opens with Gibson dressed in a yellow jumpsuit and a clown mask
speeding towards the Mexican border, with a bleeding accomplice in
the back of his car and a shit load of money while being chased on
either side by both U.S and Mexican border patrol men. He bursts
through the barrier between the two countries and ends up
surrendering. The Mexicans are going to hand Mel and his partner over
to the U.S cops but upon seeing the money, they quickly decide to
process him and send him to a Mexican prison, a hell on earth. If
you've ever seen Prison Break season 3 and know the prison, Sona,
you'll get a fair idea of the sort of place they send Mel, but it's
on a much larger scale, the Gen-Pop area looks like a small town.
Well the two Mexicans steal Mel's money while he's in prison. To make
his time in the prison more comfortable, Mel (fuck it, for this
review he's going to be called Porter), Porter, finds a friend in a
10 year old boy who acts as his watcher, he looks out and informs
Porter on all the dirty dealings and stuff that goes on inside the
prison. Everything seems to be run by a gangster called Javi, he has
his henchmen and his second in command is his brother played by Jesus
Ochoa who you may recognize as the police inspector who gets a bomb
shoved up his ass by Denzel Washington's Creasy in Man On Fire. Javi
has a rare liver disease and is looking for a donor, unfortunately
the only donor is the 10 year old kid that Porter has befriended.
Porter tries to get in with Javi by telling him where the money is.
Unfortunately, a couple of hitmen are on his tail as the money
belongs to a man called Frank (Peter Stormare) and Frank wants his
money back. When he finds out that the kid is the only donor, Porter
stops at nothing to get the kid and his mother out of the prison and
to safety and to get his money back.
Now
I don't want to go into any more detail of the plot because that will
spoil the fun for all of you. The best thing about this movie is
Gibson, he's back on dry wit form and relishes playing a dick. His
character of the 'driver', which is what he's credited as, is a work
of genius, he smokes, swears, drinks and talks back to authoritative
figures which is basically the same role he played in Payback. Like I
stated earlier in the review, I fucking love Mel, and this just
proves that with all the shit that he's done and said over the past
few years does not detract from the fact that Mel is a magnificent
screen presence when he's in his element. I've missed this Mel, Edge
of Darkness was good and he was brilliant in Jodie Foster's The
Beaver but it's when he's playing these smart-alec douchebags that he
truly shines. The role of The Driver is so much like Porter it's
scary which is why I see this as a semi-unofficial sequel to Payback,
a lot of elements of the film are reminiscent of Brian Helgeland's
mean spirited but fan-fucking-tastic noir throwback, from the
sarcastic voice over from Mel that filter in an out of the film
throughout, to the violent shoot-outs and shady characters. This time
instead of being an actual prick, this 'Porter' has a more human side
when it comes to the 10 year old kid he befriends and this adds a
deeper layer to the character than just another career criminal
that's thrown into a fish out of water environment. This is Mel back
on form and he's incredible. More films like this please Mel.
The
action in Get The Gringo is brutal, for once we get an R rated action
film that shows bullet hits and blood spurts that we don't get in
action films any more. It's incredibly satisfying as viewer to
witness a film made in the 21st
century that relies on the use of squibs when we've had to deal with
the useless practice of making blood from CGI. I know that sounds bad
and that I get off on violence and I can assure as film watcher and
reviewer, I like practicality in my action scenes, I like to see it
for real not enhanced by CG and this film really does hit the mark on
that front. There are some over uses of slo-mo during some of the
action but that just adds to the style of the film. The violence is
at time brutal but you're used to on screen bloodshed then you'll get
a kick out of it.
The
film does have flaws however, there are some plot holes in the film
that are glaringly obvious and some character are sadly under used
such as Peter Stormare and Bob Gunton, but this all Mel's show and
it's great to see him back on screen acting and not in some news
report about how he said something anti-Semitic or slapped a woman
about (both of which I do not condone and Mel should be ashamed of
himself).
Overall,
apart from the obvious plot holes, Get The Gringo is a fun show from
start to finish with a top form performance from Mel Gibson and some
old school Hard R violence. It's laugh out loud funny at points and
brutally bloody at other points. But it's all in good fun and for
that i'm awarding Get The Gringo 4 stars....
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